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For Alex Forman's first New York solo show, the gallery's walls were painted a rich, deep red, mimicking the White House's somber Red Room and setting the mood for the carbon-pigment digital prints on view (all works 2004). Each portrait--or rather, each photo of a 2-inch U.S. presidential figurine--is printed on both 24-by-22- and 67-by-42-inch watercolor paper, the latter of which is near enough human-size to appear quite imposing. Forman has photographed all of the presidential statuettes from Washington through Nixon, though not all the images were exhibited. Frameless and mounted with tiny magnets, the smaller-format prints were mostly installed in grids, while the larger prints were hung, somewhat more effectively, on their own or in side-by-side groupings.

Depending on how she set up and lit each individual shot, Forman was able to achieve nuanced effects of light playing off the figurines. Many of them are dramatically spot-lit, while others appear to be shying away from the artist's lens, faces hidden in shadow. The varying degrees of focus within a single image draw out the sculptural quality and impressively detailed handiwork of the figurines themselves.

The most esthetically and politically effective group of images depicts, from left to right, Franklin Roosevelt, Truman and Lincoln; they appear in triptych form, with Truman as Christ (hung slightly higher), flanked by two apostles. Lincoln, however, turns his back on us--and on Truman--and appears to skulk away, head lowered, hand at his lapel, perhaps in a state of disappointment or regret regarding his successor's actions.

Forman has been researching this series--digging up hidden truths, both political and otherwise--for over three years. She presents all these quirky facts to the viewer through gallery handouts, which inform her photos, revealing private details, both tragic and humorous, that add a sense of depth and humanity to each of the presidents' lives. We learn that Franklin Roosevelt suffered from anorexia and that Washington was sterile. Forman also brings to light not one but two derogatory remarks on presidential handshakes (Wilson's, apparently, was "like a 10-cent pickled mackerel in brown paper" and Harrison's "like a wilted petunia"). Unlike much politically themed art, Forman's prints are not so much polemical statements as explorations of the individuality of these icons of American government.

While the gallery provided perhaps an overabundance of supplemental information, this lore worked to illuminate the veiled personalities embedded in each image. Whether or not we know that Buchanan suffered from an eye defect or that Monroe was the last president to wear knee breeches, the "portraits" stand alone as richly textured prints and human characterizations.

COPYRIGHT 2005 Brant Publications, Inc.
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